Andrew Sage
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And on the 30th of January, the SDF formally announced a ceasefire with the Syrian government and accepted a framework for folding both their military structures and civilian administration into the Syrian state.
Syrian authorities set timelines on this agreement.
Within a month, they would retake control of border crossings, oil and gas infrastructure like Kermelani and Al-Sawadi, detention camps holding ISIS members and their families, and strategic sites such as Qamishli International Airport.
Interior ministry units were scheduled to deploy to Hasakah and Qamishli almost immediately, and Syrian security forces would oversee the absorption of the Kurdish internal security apparatus, the SAISH, into the state's policing structures.
Militarily, the SDF is stated to be absorbed under the Syrian Ministry of Defense, but on an individual vetted basis.
Up to now, the fate of the female fighters and non-Syrian fighters within the SDF is unknown.
And on the civilian side of things, the institutions created by the Rojava administration are to be absorbed as well.
Kurdish officials have thus far secured the governorship of Hasaka and limited command roles within the military.
In exchange for their surrender, the Kurds gained some recognitions on people.
The government claims to affirm national, civil, and educational rights, promised the return of displaced populations, and issued decrees recognizing Kurdish as a national language taught in schools, declared the Kurdish celebration of no rules of public order, and reversed decades-old citizenship policies that stripped tens of thousands of Kurds of their citizenship.
Thus far, most of these promises are on people, as I said.
So the US and France co-signed this agreement and pledged to oversee its implementation.
And the president of the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq has also welcomed this agreement.
But it still remains to be seen what happens next.
Sadly, this is an outcome of the imperialist world order.
That empires and regional actors will crush any threats to their power or will attempt to crush such threats.
And as long as such power remains concentrated in these states and militaries and ruling classes, whether they are secular or nationalist or Islamist or anything else, none of us can be free.